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Jazz Articles about Idris Rahman
Zoe Rahman: Colour of Sound
by Neil Duggan
If you have shown your virtuosity on the piano in a variety of live and studio recordings, been recognized as one of the leading lights in contemporary British jazz and won multiple awards, what do you do next? In Zoe Rahman's case, more of the same but expanded and magnified. Most often heard in a trio format, Rahman has assembled seven trusted musicians to create an uplifting album, The Colour of Sound. Perhaps resulting from her background in ...
read moreSoothsayers: Soothsayers Meets Victor Rice & Friends
by Chris May
Nobody does it better, so the song goes, though whether the innuendo resonates most strongly with the singer, Carly Simon, or the lyrics's supposed protagonist, James Bond, depends, as it were, on the direction in which the listener is pointing. But whatever. In the context of Soothsayers Meets Victor Rice & Friends, the song's hook becomes a strapline for the deep-strata musical blend of cultures and ethnicities which London seems to do more convincingly than any other city in the ...
read moreIll Considered: Liminal Space
by Chris May
London's semi-free trio Ill Considered makes music in much the same way as does tenor saxophonist Binker Golding and drummer Moses Boyd's duo, Binker and Moses--using simple rhythmelodic motifs as jumping off points for otherwise unstructured improvisation, much of it blazingly intense. Originally a quartet, Ill Considered now comprises founder members tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist Idris Rahman and drummer Emre Ramazanoglu plus post-pandemic recruit, bassist Liran Donin. The band self-released an impressive nine albums between 2017 and 2019. Liminal ...
read moreWildflower: Better Times
by Karl Ackermann
The ground-breaking London trio Wildflower features bassist Leon Brichard, saxophonist Idris Rahman, and drummer Tom Skinner of the group Sons of Kemet. Brichard and Rahman are founding members of Ill Considered. Similar in style, the music of Wildflower has the fundamentals of post-minimalism, hard bop, and free improvisation. Spiritual and powerful, Better Times mostly lives up to its title, even while leaving the frustrating sense of an unkept promise. An outstanding reed player on the hot London jazz ...
read moreWildflower: Season 2
by Karl Ackermann
On paper, the UK trios Wildflower and Ill Considered bear an obvious resemblance. Each features the outstanding reed player Idris Rahman and bassist Leon Brichard, and both groups are groove-oriented progressive jazz. Wildflower is the slightly more melody-driven and the less raw of the two bands, with intricate improvisations interwoven throughout. Season 2 sees Rahman altering moods with his interchanging of the bass clarinet, bamboo flute, and his trademark tenor saxophone. Rahman is well-known in Britain for his ...
read moreIll Considered: 6
by Karl Ackermann
The London-based quartet, Ill Considered, has churned out nine full-length albums in less than two years, each high quality and each a unique jazz creation. Founded in 2017, saxophonist Idris Rahman, drummer Emre Ramazanoglu and bassist Leon Brichard replaced their additional percussionist with Satin Singh on their second release, Live at the Crypt (Self Produced, 2017). Rahman and Brichard had recorded in a short-lived group called Wildflower; that trio bearing more than a passing similarity to the style of this ...
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